BBC security team to join prison officers in keeping order at show featuring Ken Clarke
Security on BBC1's Question Time will be tighter than ever for Thursday night's edition being broadcast from Wormwood Scrubs and featuring under-fire justice secretary Ken Clarke.
BBC security guards are being posted outside the prison's perimeter to deal with the Question Time audience, but once inside the west London category B establishment, Wormwood Scrubs' security team will take over.
For the first time, prisoners will join the audience to quiz the Question Time panel along with members of the public.
Ten inmates have been chosen and vetted to ask questions of the panel, which includes former home secretary Jack Straw. Straw was also on the panel during another high-security episode of Question Time ? BNP leader Nick Griffin in 2009.
A spokeswoman for Wormwood Scrubs admitted security was tight but said there was no additional security following Clarke's BBC Radio 5 Live interview on Wednesday in which he suggested some rapes were more serious than others. Clarke has since apologised for his comments, saying he "always believed that all rape is extremely serious, and must be treated as such".
However, tonight's episode is being filmed slightly earlier than usual to give extra time to the BBC to edit the show should there be any problems.
It is not the first time Wormwood Scrubs has been used as a broadcasting venue.
Newsnight previously filmed inside the prison in 1999 and ITV this month broadcast a two-part film on the establishment.
When asked whether security had been stepped up following Clarke's comments on rape, a Prison Service spokesperson said: "Security arrangements for Question Time have been in place for weeks and have not changed."
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/19/question-time-ken-clarke
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